Philosopher

Plato, one of the great Western philosophers of antiquity.

Confucius, one of the great Eastern philosophers.

Hypatia, an ancient Western philosopher.

In the broadest sense of the word, a philosopher is a someone who studies philosophy. The word "philosopher" comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος (philosophos), which literally means "lover of wisdom". The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.

A philosopher may have extensive knowledge concerning one or more of the fields of aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, social theory and political philosophy. They may relate this knowledge to the discussion of philosophical problems.

Modern academia

In the modern era, those attaining advanced degrees in philosophy often choose to stay in careers within the the educational system. According to a 1993 study by the National Research Council (as reported by the American Philosophical Association), 77.1% of the 7,900 holders of a Ph.D. in philosophy who responded were employed in educational institutions (academia). Non-academic philosophers can employ their skills in a great number of other careers, such as medicine, bioethics, business, publishing, free-lance writing, media, and law.

Not all career philosophers are supportive of the intellectual barriers present in modern academia. In the foreword to Against the Gods by Stefan Molyneux, Portland State University philosophy instructor Peter Boghossian wrote of academic philosophers: "Where there was once free expression, genuine inquiry, and an emphasis on clarity and rigor, now there’s limited expression, hampered inquiry, and an emphasis on issues that matter to almost nobody except the very, very few philosophers who study them." He added: "Public intellectuals ... unencumbered by rigid, culturally shifting rules and arbitrary intellectual boundaries of academic philosophy departments, are agents of real, profound change in a much larger, much more meaningful landscape.".

Motivation

Just as the natural sciences are built on a persistent curiosity and healthy skepticism with regard to how we interpret what we see - never accepting any explanation as truth if that explanation cannot be supported by empirical evidence - philosophical inquiry reflects a persistent curiosity and healthy skepticism in regards to what we define as truth, empirical, evidence, and thought. The usefulness of an idea, and studying the interpretation of an idea, is situated within the historical events that gave possibility to the idea, and in the potential to study how these ideas can work to shape our lives. How we think about what counts as real, affects and conditions the way that we interact and think. Philosophers often seek to identify and analyze the consequences of ideas and concepts.

Today, philosophy and science are two separate disciplines. Scientists work by empirically-based hypothesis testing, whereas philosophers pursue reason-based logical analysis.

Women in Philosophy

See also: List of female philosophers

While the majority of philosophers are male, there have been some demographic changes since the 20th century. Some prominent female philosophers are Marilyn McCord Adams, Patricia Churchland, Ayn Rand, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Susan Haack.

Prizes in Philosophy

Prominent prizes in Philosophy include the Avicenna Prize, the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy and the Rolf Schock Prizes.

Quotations about Philosophers

The following are quotations about Philosophers, or by Philosophers.

• "There is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by some philosopher." -- Cicero in De Divinatione, Book II, chapter LVIII, sec. 119.

• "The philosopher as an analyst is not concerned with the physical properties of things, but only with the way in which we speak about them." -- Alfred Jules Ayer in Language, Truth, and Logic (1936).

• "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." -- Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, thesis 11.

• "Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars." -- Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays, Chapter IV, Part iii, p. 74.

• "It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards." --Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers (1843)

See also

Some notable Philosophers include:

• Socrates
• Aristotle
• Alhazen
• Al-Kindi
• Alpharabius
• Parmenides
• Zeno of Elea
• Thomas Aquinas
• Avicenna
• Confucius
• Jacques Derrida
• René Descartes
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• David Hume
• Immanuel Kant
• Søren Kierkegaard
• Laozi
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Plato
• Willard Van Orman Quine
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Arthur Schopenhauer
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Francis Bacon
• George Berkeley
• Benedict de Spinoza
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• Karl Popper
• Bertrand Russell
• Alfred North Whitehead
• Gottlob Frege
• David Kellogg Lewis
• John Venn
• John Stuart Mill

See also

• List of female philosophers
• List of philosophers